Hope College is now the home office of the North American branch of the international Society for Reformation Research.
Faculty members Dr. Janis Gibbs and Dr. J. Jeffery Tyler have become treasurer and membership secretary for the society. They are sharing responsibility for the two offices, coordinating North American distribution of the society's annual publication, the "Archive for Reformation History," in addition to handling the society's finances and membership needs in North America.
"It fits us well," Tyler said of the society's new connection to the college. "We're a church-related school, affiliated with a church born during the Reformation era."
Both Gibbs and Tyler are active scholars of Reformation history. Gibbs, an assistant professor of history, has been at Hope since 1996. Tyler, an associate professor of religion and Towsley Research Scholar, joined the faculty in 1995.
According to Gibbs and Tyler, the "Archive for Reformation History" is one of the oldest trans-Atlantic journals on the religious history of the 16th century. The journal was first published in Germany in 1903. The Society for Reformation Research was extended from Germany to North America in 1947.
"The 'Archive' remains one of the most prestigious international journals on Reformation history," Gibbs said. "It began as a publication dedicated to scholarship on Protestantism, but has now broadened to include all religious confessions and movements of the 16th century."
The "Archive for Reformation History" is published annually in two volumes: a 300-page collection of essays, and a 200-page supplemental "Literature Review." The publications feature articles by scholars from around the world. Most of the essays and reviews are written in German or English.
Both volumes are published by Guetersloh publishing house in Germany. The essay collection is edited by Susan C. Karant-Nunn of the University of Arizona, Anne Jacobson Schutte of the University of Virginia and Heinz Schilling of the Humoldt University in Berlin. The "Literature Review" is edited by Hans-Christoph Rublack of the University of Tuebingen.